SMS: The Channel That Never Misses
No app. No data connection. No download. Just a message that lands, every time.
Why it matters
SMS reaches every phone in the country, on any network, on any device. No smartphone required. No Wi-Fi required. With a 98% open rate, it's read faster and more reliably than almost any other channel your charity has access to. When something has to land, SMS is the channel that gets it there.
Reach that nothing else matches
SMS doesn't rely on an app, a data connection, or a particular type of phone. If a supporter can receive a text at all, this reaches them, making it the one channel every person in your database can be sent through.
- Works without a smartphone, an app, or a data connection
- Reaches supporters who RCS, WhatsApp, and email can't
- The right choice whenever a message simply has to arrive
Built for speed
A new SMS campaign doesn't need a developer, a design brief, or a week of lead time. From writing the message to sending it, the whole thing can happen inside a single afternoon.
- Send broadcast messages to your full supporter base in seconds
- Trigger automatic journeys based on donor actions or dates
- Connect your CRM or website directly via API, or send through Cymba Connect
More ways to use it than you'd think
Not every SMS message is an ask. Some simply need to arrive: a reminder, an alert, an update, sitting quietly alongside the campaigns asking for a gift.
- Handles urgent, functional messages that simply need to arrive
- Runs alongside campaign appeals asking for a gift
- Works for every audience, regardless of device or data access
Built for two-way engagement, not just broadcast
A one-off gift doesn't need a second campaign to become a regular one. The same thank-you that confirms the donation can invite a supporter to go further, and replying costs them nothing extra.
- Handles opt-outs and consent automatically, keeping you compliant
- One reply, like BEGIN, is all it takes to start a regular gift, no forms, no calls
- Supporters get a text every month with the option to skip or stop, keeping full control over their giving
ActionAid UK: Adaptive SMS, lower cost per acquisition.
Around half of people were opting out of ActionAid UK's fundraising calls, but the charity still needed their postal address to send a thank-you item. Cymba built a bespoke SMS flow that triggered automatically when someone opted out of a call, capturing postal details by text instead. It removed the cost of the calling agency entirely and lowered the charity's cost per acquisition across its campaigns.
"Cymba's solution has helped reduce our campaign costs massively and subsequently had a positive impact on the ROI for this campaign," says Vicky Hayles, Acquisition Campaign Specialist at ActionAid UK. Link through to the full case study on cymba.co.uk."
